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^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 


THE GREAT 

ANTI-SLAVERY AGITATOR, 

HON. OWEN LOVEJOY 

AS A 

GOSPEL MINISTER, 

WITH A COLLECTION OF HIS 

t 

SAYINGS IN CONGRESS. 


BY REV. D. HEAGLE. 


In Congress he was the recognized great champion 
of human rights, on the stump almost without a 
peer for his magnetic power, and in the pulpit a 
Boanerges. His sayings read like the crashing 
of round-shot in the ranks of an enemv, or like 
shell-explosions ; sometimes like the falling of 
dew upon new- mown fields. 


PRINCETON: 

T. P. STREETER, PRINTER, REPUBLICAN OFFICE, 

619 Main Street, Illinois. 










^ ^ W ^ ' y ^ ^ ^ 



THE GREAT 


ANTI-SLAVERY AGITATOR, 


HON. OWEN LOVEJOY 

* 

—AS A — 

GOSPEL MmiSTEE. 



PRINCETON: 

T. P. STREETER, PRINTER, REPUBLICAN OFFICE, 

619 Main Street, Illinois. 


b 

• L 1-\43 




PREFATORY NOTE. 

# 

Very few characters have been produced by the 
nineteenth century that, in point of moral grandeur, 
excel Hon. Owen Lovejoy. Still no biography of 
this remarkable man has as yet appeared. Especial- 
ly is his life as minister of the gospel largely un- 
known to the public in general. The object of this 
little publication is, therefore, to collect and state^ 
with some fullness, these facts of so much importance 
to a correct understanding of what Mr. Lovejoy did 
and was. Not as a scheme to make monev out of, 
but simply as a “ labor of love,” has this pamphlet 
been prepared ; and it is believed, or rather known, 
to be the most exhaustive presentation of the items 
belonging to Mr. L.’s ministerial history that has 
ever been attempted. Only as a very imperfect and 
hasty sketch, however, is it offered to the public. 


Copyrighted by 

T. P. Streeter and D. Heagle, 

1886. 


HON. OWEN LOVEJOY. 


Less than a quarter of a century ago 
Hon. Owen Lovejoy was one of the most 
conspicuous figures in the United States 
Congress. He was so not only by' virtue of 
a commanding genius, rare oratorical pow- 
ers, and advanced convictions regarding the 
anti-slavery cause, — a cause which then yet 
gave its representatives a kind of distinction, 
if not equally wide respect, — but also in con- 
sequence of actual and important services 
rendered by him to the government and the 
country in general. x\braham Lincoln, in a 
letter written shortly after Mr. Lovejoy’s 
death, says of those services as related to 
himself: “Throughout my heavy and per- 

plexing responsibilities here (in Washington, 
as President) to the day of his death, it 
would scarcely wrong any other to say he 
was ?ny most generous friend^'* Also in 
the same letter, “ My acquaintance with 
him began about ten years ago, since which 
time it has been quite intimate, and every step 
in it has been one of increasing respect and 


4 


HON. OWEN LOVEJOY, 


esteem, ending with his life, in no less than 
affection on my part.” How much Mr. 
Lincoln was attached to Mr. Lovejoy, and 
also how greatly he had been assisted by 
him, both in becoming President, and in ac- 
complishing many duties belonging to that 
office, especially such duties as related to a 
disposition of slavery in the various phases 
assumed by it all through much of the war, 
are matters best known by those who have 
a more intimate acquaintance with the work- 
ings of government and of politics dur- 
ing those exciting, trying times. The very 
last letter ever written by Mr. Lovejoy, — 
from Brooklyn, New York, where he was 
at the time, mortally ill, — was in reference 
to a Universal Emancipation bill which he 
had himself introduced in Congress, and 
which he hoped to be able by returning 
health to advocate, and to help press if pos- 
sible into a law, — also as he says, his hope 
was — by this bill, or arguments in connec- 
tion with it — “to exculpate the Fathers, and 
and clear up the Constitution from the 
charges of pro-slavery men.” 

But he did not live to be again in Con- 
gress. He died in Brooklyn, at the resi- 
dence of a friend, March 25th, 1864. His 


AS A GOSPEL MINISTEK. 


5 


remains were buried in Oakland Cemetery 
one-half mile west of tlie beautiful little city 
of Princeton, Illinois, and there they still 
lie. Princeton is the place where Mr. Love- 
joy had made his home for twenty-six years, 
and where yet most members of his family 
reside. Visiting not long since the burial- 
place mentioned, and considering how un- 
like the grand living character tilling so 
large a territorv with his name and influ- 
ence, the poor silent remains in the coffin now 
are, the writer had it impressed upon him, 
as seldom before, how incomparably superior 
the living man is not only to the dead, but 
to all clay subject to disorganization, death 
and decay. Surely, one says involuntarily to 
himself, when standing in the presence of 
this dust, that which made Owen Lovejoy 
what he was, is not anything here; the 
great intellect, the noble conscience, the 
strong, resolute, and widely sympathetic 
heart, are matters wholly different from 
mere physical being. In other words, the 
power of spirit and the power of mere mat- 
ter, come out in striking contrast to him who 
meditates these things in the presence of 
Owen Lovejoy’s grave. 

But the object of this paper is not to 


6 


HON. OWEN LOVEJOY, 


outline the greatness of Mr. Lovejoy in gen- 
eral, nor to write his biography, much less 
to insist upon his personal significance and 
doings in Congress; rather is it to describe, 
somewhat in full, quite a large chapter of 
his life which is not very well known to the 
general public. Nevertheless it is a chapter 
which the writer thinks is one of <jreat im- 
portance in Mr. Lovejoy ’s biography, and 
one which must be understood in order to 
gain a correct apprehension of the history of 
this remarkable man. Besides being Con- 
gressman, an anti-slavery agitator, and 
widely known as a platform-speaker, he was 
for seventeen years a regularly settled, duly 
installed^ successful and greatly honored pas- 
tor of an orthodox Christian church.^ — this is 
the fact to which we wish to call special at- 
tention in the following paragraphs. 

The scene of Mr. Lovejoy’s ministerial 
labors was, as said, Princeton, Illinois. At 
present it is a town of between four and five 
thousand inhabitants. It is the county-seat 
of Bureau county, one of the largest, richest, 
and in every way- foremost agricultural 
counties in the State. What the restdents 
of Princeton especially boast of, is its general 
beauty, its handsome residences and shaded 


AS A GOSPEL MINISTER. 


7 


streets, its graveled thoroughfares leading out 
into the country, its excellent schools, and 
the generally high moral and Christian 
character of its people. When Mr. Lovejoy 
came to the place, in October, 1S38, its pop- 
ulation numbered only a few hundred, and 
its general aspects were those of any newly 
started, rapidly growing Western town. He 
came a licensed preacher, the license having 
been received, we believe, from a presbytery 
convened at Jacksonville, in the same State. 
Before that however, Mr. Lovejoy had' 
studied theology for a time with his brother, 
Elijah P. Lovejoy, in Alton, and also with 
an Episcopal clergyman there; and still 
earlier he had come from Maine, where he 
was born, had studied letters and theology, 
and for a while was teacher in some kind of 
a school. 

With this preparation, coming to 
Princeton, he was immediately engaged by 
the First Congregational church in the 
place, as supply of their pulpit, and was 
afterwards regularly ordained as their pastor. 
Some of the older members of the church, 
still living, tell with no little relish of the 

wav Mr. L decided the matter of his 

•/ 

coming to Princeton. He had come up 


8 


HON. OWEN LOVEJOY, 


from Peoria on horseback until within a few 
miles of the town. There the road divided, 
one branch leading off to Geneseo, another 
new town about the size of P., and some 
forty miles west, and the other branch 
coming on to Princeton. At each of these 
towns, it had been learned by him, there 
was a church without a pastor, or that the 
services of a minister were desired. So be- 
ing called to neither place, and having nev- 
ertheless to decide that difficult question of 
where duty would have him go, he was nat- 
urally in something of a quandary. Finally 

he determined to proeeed, and did proceed 

$ 

in the direction that was taken by the horse 
left*without guidance from the reins; and so 
it came to pass that by a kind of instinc- 
tive providence, or call it horse zvisdom^ 
Mr. L. decided to make his home in Prince- 
ton. The fact, however, that for seventeen 
years he found here a successful pastoral 
settlement, — the only pastorate he ever hadi 
— besides the fact of this being the place 
where much of his other work was done, and 
where all his honorable career had its start, 
would seem to justify the belief that he did 
not, in coming to the place, make a mistake. 

The church of which he assumed the 


AS A GOSPEL MINISTER. 


9 


pastorate was one that had been organized 
away back at Northampton, in Massachu- 
setts, by a colony just about starting for the 
West. They brought the organization with 
them, like the Israelites bearing the ark of 
the covenant through the wilderness; and 
like them, about the lirst thing they cared 
for, after arriving at the point of destination, 
was this institution of a religious nature. 
This church, moreover, proved to be the 
first of that faith and order in the whole 
State of Illinois. A comparatively small 
body when Mr. Lovejoy came to it, the 
church grew during his ministry, until at his 
resignation, in 1855, it was probably one of 
the largest and most influential in all this 
western , region, outside of Chicago. The 
wonder is not that Mr. Lovejoy succeeded 
as he did in the ministry of the gospel, but 
rather that a man of such extraordinary 
talents could have been kept for so long a 
time in so small a place To be sure, his 
services were sought after, somewhat, by 
churches in larger and more conspicuous 
fields, as for instance by a congregation in 
Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and had he occupied 
some such field, no doubt the lustre of his 
name, as a servant of the gospel, would have 
been much greater than it is; as he certainly 


10 HON. OWEN LOVE JOY, 

would have been equal to any place offered 
to and accepted by him. But yet for some 
reason or other (most probably his anti-slav- 
ery doctrines being at least the chief cause), 
his whole ministerial life was spent in a 
country town of but a few thousand inhabi- 
tants, and having, when he came to it, only 
a few hundred. 

Mr. Lovejoy’s career however was, as 
is well known, not wholly a ministerial 
one. Even while being a minister, and as 
such, he interested himself not a little in 
those more particularly humanitarian or 
ethical features of the work of the gospel 
which we may call its more earthward side. 
In other words, the view that h^ took of 
the gospel, while embracing the things 
which belong to salvation from sin, or to 
happiness and virtue in another world, was 
rather perhaps one which looked more gen- 
erally to establishing as much as possible of 
the kingdom of God in this life. Not that 
Mr. L. did not value the eternal interests 
of the gospel, or that he did not by a 
use of the gospel seek to save the souls of 
men round about him. He did do that. He 
both preached and prayed, and himself en- 
tertained the belief of eternal salvation by 


AS A GOSPEL MINISTER. 


11 


the death of Christ and the regenerating 
and sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit; 
and a number of times during his ministry 
his church experienced a more or less exten- 
sive revival of religion. But after all, as 
said, Mr. Lovejoy’s work would, from an 
orthodox ministerial point of view, be pro- 
nounced one rather, or more largely, in the 
interest of humanitarian and ethical benefits 
in human experience, than of eternal salvation 
from sin. Accordingly it was natural that 
he should be found, as he was, often and en- 
thusiastically engaged in temperance work. 
He both valued teetotalism as the only safe 
principle of action for the individual, and 
early learned to believe in prohibition as a 
State measure. Many were the instances in 
which his services were of especial import- 
ance in helping on the cause. For example, 
it is reported of him, that once when a 
saloon had commenced business in Princeton, 
with the suggestive words painted over its 
door, “Hole in the wall,” the following 
Sunda}^ he took for his text that passage in 
Ezekiel, chapter 8:7-10, where the prophet 
tells of his seeing in vision a hole in the wall 
of Jerusalem, and of his going through it, 
and then beholding all manner of strange 
and wicked abominations, — and preaching 


12 


HON. OWEN EOVEJOY, 


upon these words a most powerful, scathing, 
excoriating sermon, the consequence was 
that a day or two afterwards the saloon dis- 
appeared. Whether owing to his influence 
or not, the saloons never during Mr. L.’s 
ministry obtained much of a foothold in 
Princeton, and even yet the town is, when 
compared with many others, noticably free 
from such iniquitous pests. 


Another moral cause in which the man 
of whom we are writing took particular in- 
terest, was, as is well known, abolitionism^ 
or the resistance and overthrow ot slavery,' 
especially as it existed in the United States. 
This was, indeed, Mr. Lovejoy’s great 
hobby; if it is right to call that a hobby 
to which a person may give most intelligent 
and conscientious attention, and in which 
the weal or woe of millions of human beings 


is involved. But whatever the name of it, 
certain it is that Mr. Lovejoy took very 
great interest in the cause of anti-slavery, 
and gave to this cause a good deal of atten- 
tion, time, effort and sacrifice, perhaps more 
than to any other one public object that en- 
gaged him in life. He made so much of 
this cause, not for the reason that he supposed 
there was no other end in life worthy of 
earnest and great devotion, much less be- 


AS A GOSPEL MINISTER. 


13 


cause he supposed that religion should be 
displaced, or set below, the subject of anti- 
slavery, but rather because, as he conceived 
of the freeing of men from bondage, this 
matter is a part, and not an unimportant 
part of religion, especially of the religion of 
Christ. God hath made of one blood all the 
nations of the earth,” “As ye would that 
men should do to 3^11, do ye even so unto 
them,” — these are Scriptures that Mr. Love- 
joy delighted to quote, and often did quote; 
as also he made frequent use of the Christian 
doctrine that Jesus Christ died for all man- 
kind. Accordingly, as he put an}^ amount 
of religion, and especially of religious en- 
thusiasm, into his anti-slavery efforts, so he 
also put the largest share possible, consistent- 
ly with other ends, of anti-slavery doctrine 
and sentiment into his religious services. 
Perhaps no sermon of his, even though upon 
some abstract, highl}^ theological theme, 
came to an end, or at all events very few of 
his discourses so did, without having in them 
somewhere or other a reference — a paragraph 
it might be, or a large digression right in 
the heart of the homily, relating to the in- 
iquity of holding men in bondage, the 
wretched condition of the slave, or the duty 
of all men who prize their own personal 


14 


HON. OWEN liOVEJOY, 


liberty, and who love God and the Lord 
Jesus-Christ, to use what influence they have, 
in overcoming the barbarity, the wicked- 
ness, and the awful disgrace of having three 
or four million human beings in bondage 
here in our own country. What Mr. Beecher 
andDr. Cheever were in Brooklyn and New 

j 

York, and Theodore Parker in Boston, 
that, and perhaps more abundantly, was par- 
son Loyejoy, during much of his ministry, 
in respect to teaching from the pulpit, or in 
connection with regular religious discourse, 
anti-slavery doctrine. Nor was such preach- 
ing without its effect. Whatever the results 
attendant upon the efforts made by the three 
other abolition preachers named, working 
in the East, Owen Lovejoy laboring in a 

little country town of the West, stirred up 

0 

the whole region for many miles round him; 
and not only that, but gradually this part of 
the American populace became converted to 
his doctrines, — that is, on the anti-slavery 
question. Not that all this result came 
from his preaching, or from any work done 
by Mr. Lovejoy alone; there were other 
active anti-slavery men scattered through 
this territory. But in all the movement 
named Mr. Lovejoy was the one prominent, 
the central figure; and to his preaching must 


AS A GOSPEL MINISTER. 


15 


be accredited at least the agency of starting 
the work, as well as perhaps of being one of 
its most continual and main inspirations. 

In due time, moreover, this movement 
sent Mr. Lovejoy to Congress, particularly 
as its representative; and it re-elected him 
three times in succession to the same place. • 
Once after he had been in Congress some 
seven years, being in Princeton, and conver- 
sing with an old acquaintance upon the de- 
sirability of public political life as compared 
with that of being an humble minister of 
the gospel, he remarked, ‘‘ If I had my life 
to live over again, I do not believe I would 
forsake the pulpit. Politics is simply a dog’s 
existence;” and the way in which he justified 
himself for doing as he did, was by believ- 
ing that his position in Congress had enabled 
him to do more good than he could have 
achieved as the j)astor of a church. Of 
course, the good he had in mind, was es- 
pecially that connected with the overthrow 
of American slavery. This being achieved, 
there would result other moral, as well as 
vast and more distinctively religious benefits. 

But it was not wholly by his preaching 
abolition that this agitator advanced his cause; 
it was also done, and perhaps quite as sue- 


16 


HON. OWEN LOVEJOY, 


cessfully or importantly, by his practicing, 
at least to a certain extent, his own preach- 
ing. The Fugitive Slave Law was enacted 
in September, 1S50, but long before that it 
had been the custom of Southern slavehold- 
ers to enter the free states of the North, and 
• arrest, by law or otherwise, fugitive slaves 
found in such territory, and convey them 
back to their former condition of bondage. 
Moreover, some of the Northern states, and 
Illinois among the number, had laws of their 
own, providing for the occurrence of such 
acts, and for the protection and assistance of 
the men engaged in them. These procedures 
terribly offended Mr. Lovejoy. From his 
first appearance as a public man or speaker, 
he proclaimed himself, wherever he went, 
as conscientiously, in heart and soul, opposed 
to delivering up the fugitives; and his oppo- 
sition was not simply one of words, power- 
ful and important as these were, but also one 
of deeds. Among other services he rendered 
in that way, was his acting as a manager 
along: the line of an Illinois “ underg:round 
railway,” leading from the land of slavery, 
.toward Canada, the land of freedom; and 
not a few were the fleeing ones that he in 
one way and another joyfully helped on 
their journey. Once he was prosecuted be- 


AS A GOSPEL MINISTER. 


17 


fore the Circuit Court, for “ harboring and 
secreting,” contrary to the laws and majesty 
of Illinois, a poor slave woman who had 
managed in some way to get as far as 
Princeton, along the line of the said under- 
ground railway. Undoubtedly, moreover, 
Mr. L. was abundantly guilty; as he came 
very near being convicted of the misdemeano}'^ 
as it was called; but by the influence of able 
counsel, and also his own eloquence assisting, 
he managed to escape, not however without 
a very earnest and long-urged suit. Once 
also when, in a neighboring town, where he 
had gone to attend an anti-slavery meeting, 
he had there assisted in holding down to the 
ground a man who was trying to arrest a 
negro, — probably a slave fleeing toward 
liberty, — he was for this act tried, with sev- 
eral other parties, on the charge of assault 
and battery, and was himself fined ‘‘ fifty 
dollars and costs.” But he succeeded, by 
appealing to a higher court, in getting the 
matter annulled. f Thus in many ways did 

f Once also he was pursued by a mob from the Court House, 
in Princeton, to his own private residence, which mob angrily and 
vociferously demanded possession of a colored man, whom Mr. 
Lovpjoy, wi th others, had succeeded in rescuing from the hands of 
certain slave-catchers who had arrested him. But Mr. L notwith- 
standing the mob must have numoered near 200 men, turned them 
all back and th waited their attempt, by simply standing at his 
gate, and putting on a bold determined front, giving his pursuers 
to understand that whosoever should attempt to enter upon his 
premises, would do so at his peril. 


18 HON. OWEN LOVEJOY, 

Mr. L. suffer and act for the cause of anti- 
slavery, as well as that he both preached 
and prayed, and lectured, and gave stump- 
speeches, frequently in its interest. Person- 
al abuse and obloquy he soon became accus- 
tomed to, as well as to opposition from those 
who disagreed with him as to his principles. 
But none of these things deterred him in the 
least from doing what he thought to be 
duty. Indeed so great were both his moral 
and his physical courage, that no danger 
however large, and no opposition coming 
from society however formidable, could at 
all move him from his purpose; and this is 
one of the grandest features belonging to his 
grand character, his indomitable and irresis- 
tabie devotion to duty, especially to duty as 
connected with the welfare of his fellow 
human beings in bondage and distress. 

An excellent school both in such devo- 
tion to duty and in moral courage he had 
been in, for a year or more, while with his 
brother, Elijah P. Lovejoy, at Alton. He 
was with that brother during nearly all the 
opposition and outrageous treatment he re- 
ceived in Alton, because of his attempt to 
establish there, in a peacable, perfectly law- 
ful way, a newspaper claiming the right to 
speak out as it believed upon the slavery 


AS A GOSPEL MINISTER. 


19 


question. For this undertaking Elijah P. 
Lovejoy was killed by a mob, on the 7th of 
November, 1837. Owen being in the city, 
and being, as was the whole country after- 
wards, greatly affected at this the first 
American martyrdom to the freedom both 
of the press and the slave, besides having his 
own private fraternal grief in the case, went, 
— as he has left on record an account of the 
matter, — sliortly after the occurrence, into a 
room where the dead body was lying; and 
there, as he says, alone with the dead and 
with God, he vowed, on his knees, never to 
forsake the cause that had been sprinkled 
with his brother’s blood; and from that day 
to the day of his own death he was true to 
the vow thus solemnly taken. This vow 
and the occasion for it, explain much in the 
after-career of Mr. Lovejoy, also excuse 
much of what in language or manner might 
otherwise seem to be violent, or bordering 
on to extravagance, especially as appearing 
in some of his Congressional and other polit- 
ical speeches. No man had a tenderer heart 
than he; but never was there a human heart 
that brewed within itself a more fearful 
thunderstorm of wrath and sharp denuncia- 
tion against a wrong, particularly one so 


20 




HON. OWEN LOVEJOY, 

iTionstroLis and cruel as Mr. L. conceived 
American slavery to be. 

Another incident occurred in his ex- 
perience about this time, which may have 
had, nay, it did have some effect in determin- 
ing Mr. L.’s future course. He had, as it 
appears, at first meditated entering the 
Episcopal ministry, and in order to do so, 
according to the usages of that church he 
had applied to a bishop for orders. But the 
bishop made it a condition of receiving him, 
that he pledge himself not to agitate the 
subject of slavery, the very thing that Mr. 
L. could not, would not consent to do. 
“Rather than degrade my manhood” — such 
was his reply — “ by consenting to any such 
condition as that, I will suffer to have my 
right arm severed from my body.” Conse- 
quently he was not ordained an Episcopal 
clergyman, but in the end turned out to be a 
Congregationalist — an ecclesiastical position 
more in accord, one would think, with his 
strong independency of nature. 

As pastor of the First Congregational 
church in Princeton, no constraints were put 
upon either his utterances or his work in 
general. Neither did he experience from ^ 


AS A GOSPEL MINISTER. 


21 


any source any material opposition, at all 
events none that hindered him in his work. 
Still, when he first came to Princeton the 
community in general were far from being 
converted to any such anti-slavery notions as 
those which he advocated. So. one Sundav, 
coming out in his sermon pretty strongly, as 
he usually did when expressing himself upon 
the subject of slavery, — coming out upon 
that topic with a good degree of force, he 
stirred up no little commotion among his 
hearers; so much so that several of the good 
brethren got up from their seats, and were 
leaving the room. They could endure such 
preaching no longer. “Well, my friends,” 
said Mr. L., pausing a bit, and looking after 
the departing ones, “ it seems that my 
preaching here has an apostolic effect. But,” 
said he, speaking calmly, am going to 
preach that kind of gospel until you like it, 
and then I shall preach it because you do 
like it,” — and, of course, he was as good as 
his word. After a while the people came to 
relish such doctrine, but at first it was, as 
said, pretty generally, or at least widely dis- 
tasteful. One of the ways in which this 
disrelish was shown, was on the part of little 
boys, who would at times, we have been 
told, waylay the ‘^abolition preacher,” — hid- 


22 


HON. OWEN LOVE JOY, 

in^ behind a fence or some other obstruction, 
— and then when he passed, fling clods at 
him; as once also, at Bloomington, he was 
“egged” by men, because they did not like 
the doctrine for which he stood before the 
public as a representative. Generally, how- 
ever, only those who did not know Mr. 
Lovejoy, cherished bitterness of feeling 
towards him; and the more he came to be 
known personally, as also the more thorough- 
ly and widely his doctrine came to be under- 
stood, the more were both himself and the 
doctrines looked upon by the people favor- 
ably. Both were victorious at the time of 
his death. Then in all the State of Illinois 
few names were more popular than that of 
the preacher-politician, Owen Lovejoy. 

As a pulpit orator, certainly Mr. L. had 
extraordinary powers. Not the most 
thoroughly or theologically educated in the 
world, nor always as refined in expression as 
he might have been, he was yet a talker 
talking always to the point, and talking out 
of both a heart and a brain full of original, 
fresh, living and powerful thought. No 
ideas of other men merely hashed over and 
retailed. And as powerful and original as 
he was in his thinking, so original and pow- 
erful was he also in delivery, even in the 


AS A GOSPEL MINISTER. 


23 


wording of his ideas. Surely, there was in 
his expression no lack of clearness. As he 
said himself, when he painted a picture he 
did not mean that people should be in doubt 
as to who or what it was intended to repre- 
sent; and he did not have, in order to have 
that matter understood, to write a name 
under his work. And so also in his argu- 
ments and the general connection and flow 
of his thoughts, there was always a clear- 
ness, a peculiar lucidity given to these mat- 
ters, so that they seemed to stand out ap- 
parent of themselves; and no man after hav- 
ing heard him, had ever to question as to 
what he said, or intended to say. With 
him it was in this respect as Mr. Sam Jones 
says it is regarding himself, — ‘‘People 
may not like him, but they can not pos- 
sibly misunderstand him.” Moreover, there 
was connected with his discourse a certain 
remarkable moral energy, an elevation both 
of religious and moral sentiment, a pointed- 
ness, a grandeur and a boldness both of con- 
ception and expression, a tone often of great 
pathos and seriousness, this coupled with a 
mirthfulness of disposition, even with spark- 
ling wit and humor at times manifested; then 
a logical connection, quotations from the 
poets, and from the ancient classics, and 


24 


HON. OWEN LOVEJOY, 


frotn the Scriptures; anecdote and illustra- 
tion, — all this run together in one grand ir- 
resistible tide of eloquence and power, such 
as it is seldom the lot of an audience any- 
where to hear. Having listened to him 
once, a person was pretty sure to come and 
hear him a second time. For even though 
his opinions might not all be accepted, yet 
very few could deny the charm of his elo- 
quence, and people generally said, ‘‘Well, 
there is always something in Lovejoy’s ser- 
mons.” So they went to hear him; if from 
no other motive, then simply out of curiosity, 
to know what he would say. 

Generally, too, Mr. Lovejoy was as a 
preacher widel}^ popular, with all classes of 
society. People would come in, of a Sunday, 
to hear him preach, from eight and ten 
miles around. Often the little or larger 
room in which his services were held, would 
be so crowded that chairs and benches had to 
be brought in, to accommodate the people. 
The long lines of teams, too, tied to fences 
outside, or the clusters of them in the horse 
yard and sheds belonging to the church, — 
these also told of the interest manifested, es- 
pecially by country people, to hear the ^^hlack 
abolitionist^'^ or \)c\q, grand godly preacher ^ as 


AS A GOSPEL MINISTER. 


25 


the sentiment varied regarding what he 
should be called. 

In doctrine L. was probably a Calvin- 
ist, or what in these times would be called a 
milder type of Calvinist. His ideas regard- 
ing the rights of freedom by every man, 
were too strong to admit of any very rigid 
doctrine of interference with the human will 
coming from any source; and so he believed 
and taught the tenet, that all men can be 
saved who will. His creed also embraced 
the customary doctrines of grace, that men 
are naturally disposed to evil, that in order 
to their redemption the atonement of Christ, 
and the regenerating and sanctifying work 
of the Holy Spirit, are necessary; also that 
all men are alike accountable to God accord- 
ing to the light they have, and that at the 
last some will be saved, and some will be 
eternally lost. This much of Christian doc- 
trine can be gathered easily from sermons 
and political speeches of Mr. Lovejoj^’s that 
are still preserved; and as to the general 
soundness of his orthodoxy, evidence is ob- 
tainable not only from the sources mention- 
ed, but also from the memory of many 
ot his old j)arishioners still living, as also 
from the fact that he never was accused of the 
contrary, still more or additionally, from the 


26 


HON. OWEN EOVEJOY, 


circumstance that for nearly two decades of 
years his preaching satisfied, theologically, 
and in every other way, a highly spiritual, 
intelligent, and orthodox Christian congre- 
gation. 

Unfortunately but two or three of Mr. 
Lovejoy’s sermons have been preserved in 
printed form, though more of them still 
exist in writing. His method was common- 
ly that of a partly written and a partly un- 
written discourse, the latter element often, 
especially in later years, largely predominat- 
ing, and sometimes he spoke wholly without 
a manuscript. Moreover, people could rare- 
ly tell whether he used or did not use “notes 
so ready was he, and facile, both in thought 
and expression. From sermons of his still 
extant, and possession of which might be 
gotten, there could be published, we opine, a 
very interesting and wholesome volume, and 
one particularly valuable as illustrative of 
the literature of pulpit anti-slavery teaching, 
as also because of sturdy convictions on 
theology and other topics of human interest, 
which it would surely contain. Here it 
might be remarked also, that as yet no biog- 
raphy of Mr. Lovejoy has appeared, as capa- 
ble of being written, and as important, as 
such a production would be. 


AS A GOSPEL MINISTER. 


27 


From one of the printed sermons men- 
tioned we give a few extracts, merely as il- 
lustrations of Mr. L.’s style, and particularly 
of his style at the age of thirty-one, — the 
discourse having been written and delivered 
by him at that age, and the place of its de- 
livery being the Congregational church, 
Princeton, Illinois, The title of the sermon 
is The Supremacy of the Divine Law,” — 
text Acts 5:29. In this production the 
preacher argues the general proposition that 
it is a person’s duty, despite all penalties and 
human enactments or doings, to obey God 
rather than man; and this proposition he es- 
tablishes, first, from the fixity or immutabil- 
ity of God’s law, whether revealed in the 
Bible or in nature; secondly, from the great- 
ness of the Divine majesty and power; 
thirdly, from a large number of instances 
given where the most excellent of people 
have violated human law in the interest of 
the divine; and lastly, from the opinions of 
celebrated jurists. Thus coming to the end 
ot the discourse, Mr. L. says: 

“ It is asserted, and sometimes by reli- 
gious teachers, that a law contradicting a 
Divine percept, nullifies that percept and 
releases us from its claims. Now against 
such sentiments — and they are abroad — I 


28 


HON. OWEN LOVEJOY, 


protest. In the name of those Egyptian 
mothers who braved the cruei edict of the 
hardened tyrant their king, in the name of 
the people of Israel who rescued Jonathan 
from the hands of his unnatural- father, 
and in the name of the Levites who would 
not worship the idols of Jeroboaim; in the 
name of the three heroes who defied the 
proud monarch of Babylon to his face — in 
the name of Daniel who prayed with open 
windows — in the name of Peter, John and 
all the apostles — in the name of the glorious 
company of martyrs who went to heaven 
from the dungeon and the cross, the stake 
and the gibbet — in the name of the Puritans 
and Huguenots — in the name of the older 
patriots of Britain and the heroes of the 
American revolution — and finally and most 
of all, in the name of the Lord God Al- 
mighty, the supreme Ruler and Legislator 
of the universe — in the name of each and all 
do I protest against the sentiment that I can- 
not, must not, obey the commands of God, 
because the Constitution of the United States, 
and the Laws of Illinois forbid;— with the 
voice of all these united, with the voice of 
ten thousand thunders, do I proclaim, We 

OUGHT TO OBEY GoD RATHER THAN MEN.” 


AS A GOSPEL MINISTEB. 


29 


A similar thought is expressed near the 
beginning of the sermon, ‘‘And I am will- 
ing to stand, though alone, and lift up my 
voice, though solitary, and insist on it, that 
the Most High ruleth among the nations of 
the earth. — that He is supreme, and that uni- 
versal obedience is due to Him, the laws of 
the earth to the contrary notwithstanding.” 
“What, must I give heed to the buzzing of 
a company of grasshoppers, and disregard 
the thunderings of Sinai?” 

Scattered through the production are 
several instances of the preacher’s droll 
humor or sarcasm: “But there was one 

man who was willing to do the dirty work 
of the despot. Doeg, the Edomite, was 
ready to butcher the priests of the Lord. 
Doeg was his name. If you extract one of 
the letters, it will still describe a class of men 
not yet extinct” — “ We can, without posi- 
tive instruction on the point, easily imagine 
that the great Jehovah would not like to be 
set aside for the monarch of Egypt, or even 
for such an august body as the General As- 
sembly of the State of Illinois” — “I suppose 
if the legislature should enact a law like that 
which issued from the throne of Egypt, there 
would not be wanting, among our modern 
idolaters of law, those who would take, per- 


30 


HON. OWEN LOVE JOY, 


haps those who would seek, the office of 
baby-killer general; but none of my congre- 
gation need aspire after the office. If any 
such appointment should be required and 
made, no doubt a Virginian will receive it.” 

From the strong telling sentences at the 
close we select the following: “Well, let 

them bring forward their penalties*, their fines 
and imprisonments. Let them heat their 
furnances seven times hotter than is their 
wont; let them starve their lions, open their 
amphitheatres of wild beasts, prepare their 
thumb-screws and other instruments of tor- 
ture, to make us tell where the fugitives lie 
concealed; let them erect their crosses, and 
set up their gibbets, and prepare their gal- 
lows, and whet their guillotines ! What 
then? Can they heat a furnace as hot as the 

lake which burns with fire and brimstone? 
Can they kindle any flames that never go 
out? Have they any undying worm to prey 
upon the soul forever? Whom then ought 
we to fear? Him that can kill the body, and 
after that hath no more that he can do; or 
Him who, after he hath killed, can destroy 
both soul and body in hell? Hath not Christ 
well forewarned us, ‘ Yea, I say unto yon, 

fear him?’ ” 


AS A GOSPEL MINISTER. 


31 


At the delivery of this very remarkable 
and powerful discourse, — for such it was, 
especially for so young a man, — quite a scene 
occurred. Mr. L.’s mother was in tlie con- 
gregation ; and the son, after mentioning the 
death of his brother in connection with many 
other noble liyes laid down for the sake of 
liberty, and then declaring, And so will 
also Owen Loyejoy, God’s grace helping 
him, die rather than yield obedience to 
human law which conflicts with the Diyine,” 
he turned to his mother, and said, “ Mother, 
can you spare another son?” The aged 
matron responded heroically, “Yes, my son, 
you cannot die in a better cause.” Thus the 
spirit of liberty seemed to haye dwelt in the 
heart of Mr. L.’s parentage, as well as in 
himself. 

But the eloquence of this preacher can 
hardly be understood, disconnected from his 
physique, and the strong personal magne- 
tism that seems to have belonged to him. 
Of this magnetism everybody who heard 
him, speaks. These were something charm- 
ing, very peculiar about it. By this pow- 
er he held an audience as it were entranced ; 
and even after the hearer had left the speak- 
er’s presence, there was still in his mind a 


32 


HON. OWEN LOVEJOY, 

spell, from which when he awoke, it was 
like coming out of a dream. So completely 
carried away and oblivious to things be- 
longing to himself, did the auditor, for the 
time, become. This power therefore must 
have been real, something idiosyncratic with 
Mr. Lovejoy. In body he was only some five 
feet eight inches high, but stoutly built. He 
would weigh, perhaps 200 pounds. Ruddy 
of complexion, with light hair and blue eyes, 
a goodly-sized mouth, an expressive counte- 
nance, hands with arms and lower limbs all 
strong and under his control, when he spoke 
the whole body seemed to partake of the 
thought, and to help in the expression. Not 
simply the tongue or the brain speaking was 
it, but the mind, the heart, the conscience, all 
there was of the spiritual nature; and all 
this mental and moral force spoke out 
through the entire body, and by the use of 
every part of it, — through gesture, and word, 
and look, and tone, and everything else by 
which thought or sentiment could be ex- 
pressed; and this is the reason why there 
was always so much of individuality in Mr. 
L.’s utterances. Moreover, in this connec- 
tion it must not be forgotten, that our orator 
possessed a powerful, sonorous, variable, and 
supple voice, well at his command. 


AS A GOSPEL MINISTER. 


33 


Before finishing our paper it might be 
fitting to notice the attitude of Mr. L. as a 
pastor moving among his people or in the 
community. But of this we will only observe 
what was told us by one of his parishioners, 
— “He was a downright good man, in what- 
ever relation he was found.” No sin was 
left uncovered by him, whether in his church 
or in the community; and his constant aspir- 
ation and endeavor were — so we are told — 
to make people all round about him morally 
and spiritually better, believing that thus 
their happiness would be increased. 

Such, in his ministerial calling, was the 
man whose body now lies, as said, moulder- 
ing in the cemetery just outside of Princeton. 
Family affection has erected to his memory 
a substantial marble monument, upon which 
is inscribed simply the words — “Owen 
Lovejoy, Born January 6, 1811, Died March 
25, 1S64.” He was, thus, a little over fifty- 
three years of age. Directly after his death 
a considerable extensive effort was made to 
put up by public subscription a much larger 
and more imposing monument, as an expres- 
sion of the appreciation in which his services 
are held by friends everywhere and the 
countrv in general. But the times did not 


34 


HON. OWEN LOVEJOY, 

seem to be propitious, owing especially per- 
haps to the fact that the war being still in 
progress, public attention and interest were 
engrossed with that; and so the enterprise 
failed. In the more favorable days that are 
sure to come, when Mr. L.’s character and 
services being better understood, there will be 
wider and stronger appreciation of them, 
then doubtless the project will be renewed, 
and will be made a success of. When that 
time arrives, — which we hope will he soon, 
— and the larger, the well-deserved public 
monument shall stand in its place, let it not 
be forgotten to be inscribed upon one of its 
sides, as a suitable description of the man 
and his work, that Owen Lovejoy was a 
gospel p7'eache7'^ a ministei' of the 7‘eligion 
of Jesus C/i7'ist. Upon some other one of 
its sides might be written — also descriptive 
of his work in Princeton — those grand words 
of his spoken in Congress, February 21, 1859, 
in reply to the taunts of pro-slavery mem- 
bers present, that he was a “ nigger-stealer,” 
because he had assisted fugitive slaves in es- 
caping: Is it desh'ed to call attcntio7i to 

this fact — of 77iy assist i//g fugitive slaves P 
Proclai77i it^ the7ty iipon the housetops. W7'ite 
it up07i cve7'y leaf that t7'C77ibles m the for- 
est.^ 77zake it blaze f7'07u the su7i at high 7ioon.^ 


AS A GOSPEL MINISTEE. 


35 


and shme forth lii the milder radiance of 
every star that bedecks the fr^nameiit of 
God, Let it echo thro7igh all the arches 
of heaven^ and reverberate and bellow alofig 
all the deep gorges of heU., where slave- 
catchers will be very likely to hear it. Owen 
Lovejoy lives at Princeton, Illinois.^ three- 
quarters of a mile east of the village, and 
he aids eveiy fugitive that coines to his door 
and asks it, Phou invisible demon of slavery 
dost thou think to cross fny humble threshold, 
and forbid 7ne to give bread to the hungry 
and shelter to the hoitseless ! I bid you 

DEFIANCE IN THE NAME OF MY GOD !” 


SOME OF 


MR. LOYE JOY’S SAYINGS. 

\ 

SELECTED ESPECIALLY P'ROM HIS SPEECH- 
ES IN CONGRESS. 


If I could honorably earn it, I would ask no 
better or nobler epitaph, than to have it written; He 
was the defender of the defenceless, the helper of 
the helpless. 

Under the leadership of no man or angels, hy 
the entreaties of no friends, by the threats of no 
enemies, by no hope of reward or fear of proscrip- 
tions, will I ever yield the millionth part of a hair 
more guarantee to the slave power. The spider’s 
most attenuated thread is cord, is cable, to that 
gossamer line that I will yield in the way of com- 
promise or concession to the claims of slavery. — Con- 
gress, 1 86 1. 

No human being, white or black, bond or free, 
native or foreign, infidel or Christian, ever came to 
my door, and asked for food and shelter, in the 
name of a common humanity or of a pitying Christ, 
who did not receive it. — Congress, 1S59. 


SAYINGS IN CONGRESS. 


37 


President Buchanan, believest thou the gospel 
record? I know that thou believest. Tell me, then, 
sir, did Christ shed his blood for cattle? Did he lay 
down his life to replevin personal property, and to 
redeem real-estate.^ — Congress, 1S58. 

The principle of enslaving human beings be- 
cause they are inferior, is this. If a man is a cripple, 
trip him up ; if he is old and weak, and bowed with 
the weight of years, strike him, for he cannot strike 
back; if idiotic, take advantage of him ; and if a child, 
deceive him. This doctrine would justify angels in 
enslaving men; and archangels, in turn, would be 
justified in subjugating those who are inferior in 
intellect and position; and ultimately it would trans- 
form Jehovah into an infinite Juggernaut, rolling 
the huge wheels of his omnipotence, axle-deep, 
amid the crushed, and mangled, and bleeding bodies 
of human beings, on the ground that he was infi- 
nitely superior, and that they were an inferior race. 
— Congress, i860. 

It is as preposterous to think of taking slaverv 
down through the civilization of the ages, as to 
think of floating an iceberg through the tropics. — 
Congress, i860. 

Refuse or neglect this; refuse to proclaim lib- 
erty through all the land, to all the inhabitants 
thereof, and the exodus of the slave will be through 
the Red Sea. — Ibid. 

I am willing to concede that ^'ou (political op- 
ponents, and especially Southern members of the 
House, who had with much excitement and uproar 
tried to intimidate him, but in vain) are as brave as 


38 


HON. OWEN LOVE JOY. 


other men, althousfh I do not think that you show it 
by this abusive language, because brave men are 
always cahn and self-possessed. God feels vo anger ^ 
for he knozvs no fear. — iS6o. 

I am afraid that I am not much like Christ, lie 
went, however, and preached to the spirits in prison ; 
and I think I never approximated so near to him as 
in this regard, while making proclamation of the 
holv evangel of God to sinners in this house. — 1860. 

Slavery is a moral, social, and political evil; a 
blight on the soil, a detriment to all the best interests 
of communities or states where found, and in its re- 
flex influences, a reproach and damage to the whole 
country. — 1859. 

I behold the genius of Liberty standing upon 
some lofty peak of the Rocky Mountains, or of the 
Andes, looking northward and southward, eastward 
and westward, from Arctic to Antarctic, from the 
Atlantic shore to the Pacific Avave, gazing upon a 
vast ocean of free republics, “ distinct like the bil- 
lows, yet one like the sea and when I look over 
that broad magnificent field, covered with teaming 
life, with its cities, towns and farms, its workshops, 
school-houses and churches, with all the varied and 
wonderful development of science, art, education 
and religion, that follow in the path of a free 
Christian civilization, as it moves along majestic and 
queen-like, leading and guiding the generations on- 
ward ajid heavenward, — then I exclaim, “ Long 
live the Republic! Let it be perpetual.” But 
American slavery which would blot out that repub- 
lic. Let it fcrish., perish, PERISH!!! — Cooper 
Institute, New York, 1862. 


SAYINGS IN CONGRESS. 


39 



> » 


Thank God! common-sense in the lom>- run is 

O 

stronger than nonsense. — Cooper Institute, 1S62. 

We have a right to explode the infernal bastile 
of slavery, in order to preserve the glorious temple 
of constitutional freedom, and the great interests of 
the country, — Congress, 1863. 

Would I arm negroes.^ Ay, sir, not only 
would I arm negroes, but I would arm mules, and 
make them shooting machines, if I could. — Ibid. 

When I w'as a boy I used to strike back at 
every dog that barked at me as I rode along the 
highways ; but I have ceased doing so long since, 
and let them bite the iron that encircles the wheel. 
— Coiigress, 1859. 


There is in man’s spiritual nature a miniature 
God — debased this likeness may be, disfigured and 
dim, still there is the divine tracery. The pearl 
may be in the oozy bed of ocean’s slime ; still it is 
capable of being burnished and made to glisten in 
the firmament of a future and immortal life. — Con- 
gress, 1859. 

Since the Ages drew up the reins and started on 
their journev, I do not suppose they have witnessed 

such a stupendous lie, as the now is. — 

Congress, 1859. 

As from the altitude of the stars, all inequalities 
of the earth’s surface disappear, so from the stand- 
point of man’s immortality all distinctions fade 
away, and every human being stands on the broad 
level of equality. — Congress, 1S58. 


40 


HON. OWEN LOVEJOY. 


The cardinal article of our faith is, prohibition 
of slavery in the territories, and the federal govern- 
ment released from its dictation and control. — i86i. 

A blushing bride — there she stands, the divinest 
thing that God has fashioned and placed upon earth; 
radiant in the beauty of youth, her cheek glowing 
with the color of the rose, which expands and fades 
away into that of the lily, her eyes sparkling like the 
stars from their depths of blue, and her tresses fall- 
ing around her neck like the locks of the morning. 

John Brown. 

No one can deny that he stands head and 
shoulders above any other character on the stage in 
that tragedy, from beginning to end, and from the 
time when he entered the armory there to the 
time when he was strangled by Governor “Fussa- 
tion” (Wise.) 

When the curtain rose, and startled the nation 
with this tragedy, John Brown lay there like a 
wounded lion with his head upon his paws, a sabre 
cut on his brow, bayonet gashes in his side, the 
blood oozing out, and life itself apparently ebbing 
fast. Around were certain little specimens of the 
canine species, snuffing and smelling, and finally one 
of them yelped out: “ Mr. Lion, was the old war 

horse that pastures on the Western Reserve (Joshua 
R. Giddings) with you on this expedition.^” The 
lion slowly raised his head, cast a disdainful glance 
upon the enquirer, growled out a contemptuous neg- 
ative, and reposed his head as before. — 1860. 

When the Jews could do nothing else, they 


SAYINGS IN CONGRESS 


41 


spit upon Christ, and said he was possessed of a 
devil. 

I know that persons who pride themselves on 
having legal minds, who can dance a hornpipe on 
the sharpened point of an attenuated precedent, who 
have spent their lives in prosecuting thieves for 
petit larceny before a justice of the peace, who 
draw themselves up and talk learnedly about Grotius 
de legibus^ and quote like the conjuror: “ horum 
quorum, spiritorum,” “ quousque tandem abutere,” 
and so on, have their scruples and legal objections, 
and are digging after precedents like a dog after a 
squirrel! But I have no patience with this. It is 
no time to follow, but to make precedents. — Cooper 
Institute, 1862. 

I shall never become a slave-catcher. Any one 
who chooses may transform himself into a blood- 
hound, snuff, and scent, and howl along the track of 
the fugitive; loll out his tongue, and lap up the dirty 
water, that stands in muddy pools by the way-side ; 
overtake the rifle-scarred and lash-excoriated slave (a 
mother, it may be, with her infant, the love of whom 
has nerved her for the flight); thrust his canine teeth 
into the quivering flesh, brace out his fore feet, and 
hold the captive till the kidnapper comes, with fet- 
ters and handcuffs, to load down ankles and wrists, — 
I would not have the guilt of causing that wail of 
man’s despair, or that wild shriek of woman’s agon > , 
as the one or the other is captured, for all the 
diadems of all the stars in heaven. — Congress, 1859. 

Bow before man.^ No; I will make mv wav 
through eternal ranks of shining angels, and bow 
only in the presence of my Creator. But before a 
slave -holding man, ncver \ never!! 


42 


HON. OWEN LOVEJOY. 


I gave the gentleman permission lopray^ but not 
to preach also. (Said to a member of Congress who 
after being permitted to interrupt Mr. Lovejoj in his 
speech, with the introduction of a bill, went on to 
make additional remarks. Of course, Mr L. brought 
down the house; as he often did, with his quaint, 
and quasi-religious observations. General Farns- 
worth testifies that nobody was more popular wfith 
members of the House of Representatives in general, 
than was Lovejoy.) 

One time a member attempted to quote Scrip- 
ture upon him, referring to the parable of the tares, 
and making the application that the tares, (slavery), 
continued to grow with the wheat. “ All right,” 
said Lovejoy, “ but it is harvest-time now, and 
and therefore this is the time for separation.” 

Well do I remember the tremor of agony that 
shook the frame of that mother, whose heart was a 
sea of emotion when she heard of the death of her 
first-born (Elijah P. Lovejoy). With clasped hands, 
and uplifted, tearful eyes, she exclaimed, “ It is the 
blood of atonement for the wrongs of slavery — the 
innocent suffering for the guilty.” — Cooper Institute, 
1862. 

This exalted personage (Christ) humbled him- 
self, and came down till he nestled beside the lowest 
form, the most degraded type of humanity, and 
whispered in accents of divine love, “My brother.” 
We might as well mock at the bloody agony of 
Christ, as to jeer at the miseries of the poor slave. — 
Congress, 1861. 

Abraham Lincoln. 

When Abraham Lincoln was meditating the 


SAYINGS IN CONGEESS. 


13 


issuing of his Emancipation Proclamation, JohnJ. 
Crittenden, of Kentucky, attempted in the House of 
Representatives, to dissaude him from the purpose, 
saying, among many other eloquent things, that if 
Lincoln could save the country without disturbing 
slavery, there was “ a niche awaiting him near to 
that of Washington; so that the jounder and W\o, pre- 
server of the Republic should stand side by side.” 
To this Mr. Lovejoy replied : “ The gentleman 

from Kentucky says he has a niche for Abraham 
Lincoln, where is. it.^” Crittenden pointed toward 
heaven. Then said Lovejoy: “ He points upward, 

but sir! if the President follows the counsel of that 
gentleman, and becomes the perpetuator of slavery, 
he should point dowiivjard^ to some dungeon in the 
temple of Moloch, who feeds on human blood, and 
where are forged chains for human limbs ; in the re- 
cesses of whose temple woman is scourged and man 
tortured, and outside the w^alls are lyingdogs, gorged 
with human flesh, as Byron describes them lying 
around the walls of Stamboul. That is a suitable 
place for the statue of him who would perpetuate 
slavery. But I too,” he continued, “ have a temple 
for Abraham Lincoln. It is in Freedom’s holy fane ; 
not surrounded by slave fetters and chains, but 
with the symbols of freedom, not dark with bondage, 
but radiant with the light of liberty. In that niche 
he shall stand proudly, nobly, gloriously, w'lth 
broken chains and slave’s whips beneath his feet. 

Let Lincoln make himself the Liberator, 'and his 
name shall be enrolled, not only in this earthly tem- 
ple, but it shall be traced on the living stones of that 
temple which is reared amid the thrones of Heaven.” 


■14 


HON. OWEN LOVE JOY. 


EXTRACT FROM HIS LAST PUBLIC PRAYER 
'in PRINCETON, ILLINOIS; THE OCCA- 
SION BEING A National Thanks- 
giving SERVICE, NOV. 26, 1863. 

Our Father, we bless thee for thy wonderful and 
!uanifold kindnesses ^vhlch have followed us as a 
nation to the present time. We have, our Father, 
to lament that we have not fully obeyed the great 
principles which we avowed to be self-evident. VVe 
I'eel that we are called upon in accordance with the 
sentiments of the chief magistrate, to acknowledge 
our sins and to humble ourselves before thee. We 
have been guilty in that we have oppressed our lel- 
low-man, in that we have robbed the slave of his 
wages, and his most valuable and sacred rights Our 
Father, thou hast had a controversy with us on this 
subject. Inasmuch as we have not proclaimed lib- 
erty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabi- 
tants thereof, when thou didst proclaim liberty to us, 
we feel that thy judgments are upon us, and justly 
we are suffering for disregarding thy commands. 
Our hearts are torn with anguish in view of the ter- 
rible calamities upon us, and we feel that thou art 
saying to the nation, let my people go, that they 
may serve me, that they may enjoy their rights, 
which thou hast claimed for every human being. 
We thank thee that thy chastening hand has been so 
far recognized by the people of the United States, 
and that we have made such rapid progress in the 
principles of righteousness towards the slave. We 
pray thee to guide us and give us the victory. We 
thank thee that thou hast shown thy kindness towards 
us in guiding the minds of the nation. We thank 


SAYINGS IN CONGRESS. 


45 


thee, our God, that thou hast given us a President 
who will call us together for thanksgiving, one whose 
integrity and honesty are above the suspicion even 
of his enemies. We pray thee to guide him by thy 
infinite wisdom. May he see the truth in regard to 
the claims of all to liberty and their rights. We 
thank thee for the success which has attended his 
administration. We thank thee for all the wonder- 
ful success which has attended our arms during the 
last twelve months — since the proclamation of free- 
dom. We thank thee that our armies are moving 
forward, and we thank thee for the imposing brillian- 
cy of their repeated and important successes. Give 
other and new victories to our arms, we pray thee, 
and prosper the cause of freedom. Bless our brave 
soldiers who are fighting for their Government, and 
for the institutions of civil and religious freedom. 
Our God, thou who art the Lord of hosts, mighty 
and terrible, lead our armies to universal victorv. 
Grant that this unholv and causeless rebellion mav 
be speedily and effectually put down, and that our 
Government may be firmly established upon the 
basis of universal freedom, and may this freedom be 

recognized and read of all men in its constitution and 

\ 

its laws. Our Father, restore to us all that old pros- 
perity which as a nation we have enjoyed. Our 
Father, we know that if we are just and true, our 
prosperity will come back redoubled, and that we 
shall not only be a great and prosperous and enlight- 
ened nation, but that we shall be a holv nation. Our 
Father, help us to be true to thy teachings. May 
freedom triumph over our land. Hasten the day 
when there shall not be a slave, a single human 
chattel in all our land. We bless thee, O God, for 


46 


HON. OWEN LOVEJOY, 


thy mercies, so numerous that we have neither time 
nor strength to recount them. 

Be with us as a people. Visit all our rulers, all 
our officers, all our brave soldiers in the field and 
hospital, or wherever they may be, fighting or sut- 
tering for their country. The Lord bless all those 
who have been affiicted in this war by the loss of 
friends. Pour into their hearts the oil of consolation. 
Be to them better than the friends which they have 
lost. Assist us in the remaining duties of this occa- 
sion; we ask it for the Redeemer’s sake. Amen. 


W46 


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